Taobao’s new regulations make it clear that it is more difficult to attract traffic to private domains!

With the release of Taobao’s new regulations, this is not only a protection for the platform’s traffic, but also a crackdown on merchants using improper methods to attract traffic. What effect will this regulation have on private domain traffic?

Taobao recently issued a public notice to change the "Taobao.com Implementation Rules for Breach of Promises". After reading the details, many practitioners sighed, the once familiar open world and traffic-generating gameplay is being quickly closed.

The new regulations have stricter regulations on the after-sales service of merchants. In particular, Article 3 seems to imply that the current much-discussed outbound call diversion, especially the AI ​​outbound call diversion service, will be rectified . Another once popular diversion method may also face risks.

It is worth mentioning that this is not a new move. Similar rules have already appeared on other platforms before. What worries the industry is that, coupled with Tmall’s recent ban on merchants using parcel cards to attract traffic , the operating space for private domain traffic has been further compressed, and most people working in the private domain are beginning to face new challenges.

1. Similar new platform regulations are coming

Practitioners familiar with Taobao’s rules pointed out that this is not a new Taobao rule, and relevant regulations have been in place as early as the end of 2023.

This time, the platform added a new clause that allows the platform to actively intervene and judge the seller's behavior . As the original text says: "If the circumstances are particularly serious... and the platform actively intervenes and determines that the seller has the above-mentioned behavior, the above-mentioned measures will be implemented."

The platform's proactive intervention is undoubtedly a stricter regulation of merchant behavior.

At the same time, the platform also identified the circumstances of "harassing others", such as sending spam messages (such as unknown verification codes, etc.) to others through phone, text messages, Aliwangwang, email, etc., abnormal contact frequency, or contacting others multiple times in the late night, early morning and other time periods that are not suitable for communication. Behaviors that cause others to be disgusted are considered harassing others.

In the investigation and identification of harassment behavior, the platform has previously described the details of proactive intervention:

"Taobao will make a comprehensive assessment based on its own big data technology and in combination with various indirect evidence (including but not limited to the member's account characteristics, motivation factors, historical records, comments, statements of other related consumers, etc.), and determine that the member has reached a high probability of engaging in harassment behavior, that is, the maximum extent is close to objective truth. Taobao will further determine that the fact of harassment by the member is established based on this probability."

The new rules were announced on July 15 and came into effect on July 22. The platform did not give merchants much time to adjust, just one week.

In addition to Taobao's severe crackdown on merchants' trending behaviors, other e-commerce platforms, such as JD.com and TikTok, also have similar behaviors and regulations, as shown in the figure below.

If you look closely at the text, you will find that the constraints are similar.

As for the behavior of merchants harassing users, it seems that all major platforms have adopted the unified practice of using fines to encourage users to report on their own initiative. Some merchants believe that this measure is to guide consumers to actively report, which will harm the interests of merchants to a certain extent.

In addition, major platforms have also updated many details recently, and functions similar to the platform's active intervention are gradually being launched, which will further regulate merchant behavior.

Some merchants have also claimed that they were actively intervened by the platform and severely punished. For example, a merchant from JD.com told Jianshi that they have 10 stores and were still using virtual numbers for outbound calls last month, but received a ticket of 60,000 yuan this month, and it was even so serious that a single store was fined 10,000 yuan.

It is worth noting that, unlike previous violation tickets, this ticket does not provide a way to appeal. The platform did not give the merchant a chance to explain, but directly deducted the fine from the store deposit.

Why do this?

A JD.com merchant who was investigated revealed that their employees took the initiative to contact customers via mobile phones, but were still monitored and punished by the platform. When the fine was issued, even the corresponding storekeeper was unaware of it. After repeated internal inquiries, it was discovered that the fine was issued by the "Platform Ecology Department."

Similarly, another Taobao brand revealed to Jianshi that when they recently used a virtual number to make outbound calls, they found that the calls were automatically recorded. After asking the platform customer service, they received a negative response:

These details point to how the platform detects merchants’ outbound calling behavior, namely:

Many virtual numbers are mixed into the user's mobile phone numbers. When the merchant makes a call manually or through AI, the number will be recorded and identified in the platform system, and then a ticket will be issued.

A senior executive of one of the e-commerce platforms told Jianshi that the reason for doing so is to extend and implement the Personal Information Protection Law.

During this period, many businesses also discussed whether they could purchase each other's services on the platform to attract users to the private domain? Because at this time, under the concept and trend of the whole domain, although users are deposited in the private domain, they are traded on the whole network.

For example, we will see different sayings: "Traffic is directed in private domains, and transactions are made in the global domain. Traffic is directed in WeChat, and transactions are made on Tmall" and so on. In different cases, the transaction platform changes with user behavior habits.

However, the executives of the above platform made it clear that this is not possible.

The corresponding services can only complete orders on the corresponding platforms. The practices of diverting traffic are not supported. They are also subject to crackdown and punishment.

3. Merchants are mixed

In the Jianshi communication group, everyone reacted strongly to the new regulations, and there were mainly two attitudes.

One attitude is more pessimistic. It is believed that the recent new regulations of major platforms are the result of internal competition among each other, that is, the platforms are worried that merchants will divert users to private domains by making phone calls and other means, snatching away the platform's customers. Therefore, the platforms restrict merchants' private domain diversion by strengthening supervision to protect platform traffic.

Outbound calls (especially AI outbound calls), as a common means of attracting private domain traffic, will be severely impacted by this change.

Combined with Tmall’s recent notice on the control of package cards, it can be seen that the platform’s control over private domain traffic is becoming increasingly strict (further reading: Can package cards continue to be used after Tmall’s new regulations? ), the difficulty of private domain operations is increasing, and it may become increasingly difficult for merchants to operate in the private domain in the future.

Another attitude is that this is conducive to the long-term development of the private domain.

After a long period of operation, the private domain industry has gradually encountered more and more problems and contradictions, and it is in urgent need of relevant policies to regulate it. In particular, the private domain that was optimized from WeChat business in the early days is full of problems.

Among them, "how to protect the security of consumers' personal information" is the top priority , and the platform's move is an extension and implementation of the "Personal Information Protection Law."

In this case, raising the threshold for private domains, excluding some simple private domains that only pursue conversions, highlighting those truly formal private domains, and standardizing private domain operations will be conducive to the long-term positive development of the market environment.

More importantly, for brands and merchants that have accumulated huge private domain pools, the market begins to reward early birds.

They will also receive higher value in return.

The private domain is difficult to operate, and many weak teams will naturally withdraw, which will also allow the existing teams to enjoy the time bonus. And:

From now on, the private domain will enter a slow-paced era. In the eyes of brands, every new private domain fan will become more lovely and more approachable.

From another perspective, the repeated control of the platform also indirectly proves the value of private domains. Although the challenges and difficulties of operating private domains are greater now, people who know how to operate private domains will be more valuable, and teams that know how to operate private domains will be more precious.

How do you respond to the platform's tightening of policies on outbound calls, package cards, etc.?

Author: See the truth

Source: WeChat public account "Jianshi"

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The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 agreement